


Reluctantly Rooming Bonus: Chapter 4.5

by imagined_haven



Series: Reluctantly Rooming AU [2]
Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Roommates/Housemates, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28069395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imagined_haven/pseuds/imagined_haven
Summary: The events of Chapter 4 of Reluctantly Rooming, as told by Rowan.
Relationships: Aelin Ashryver Galathynius | Celaena Sardothien/Rowan Whitethorn
Series: Reluctantly Rooming AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2056200
Kudos: 34





	Reluctantly Rooming Bonus: Chapter 4.5

**Author's Note:**

> This was a bonus written for my 100 follower celebration on tumblr! The following prompts were used:
> 
> _“What do you mean you don’t read my texts if they’re over four lines…”_
> 
> and
> 
> _"You're very endearing when you're half asleep"_
> 
> Enjoy!

The moment Aelin hung up, Rowan rushed into action. Thankfully, he always made it a point to keep his things organized in such a way that leaving the apartment never took longer than a couple of minutes. The only other thing he had to do was call his work, and he did so as soon as he got in the car, fingers drumming against the steering wheel as the dial tone rang for what felt like entirely too long.

Finally, a soft click interrupted the ringing. _“This is Salvaterre,”_ drawled a bored voice.

Thank whatever god was choosing to listen, he had picked up. “Lorcan, it’s Rowan. I’m going to need to work from home at least for today, if not longer.”

He heard the faint sounds of Lorcan sitting upright. _“Why? And why are you telling me this over the phone and not in writing?”_

“Because I’m not at my laptop right now, and if I texted you you’d send a novel. The last one included _paragraph breaks_ , Lorcan. I don’t have time to read your shit on top of everything else, so if you send me a text that’s over four lines it doesn’t get read.”

_“What do you_ mean _, you don’t read my texts if they’re over four lines? You_ do _understand that you report to me, right?”_

Rowan rolled his eyes. “Yes, but if it can’t be said in two sentences or less it’s better off as an email. We’ve had this discussion before, and I’m not hashing it out again on my way to the hospital.”

_“The hospital? Rowan, what the fuck is going on?”_

His fingers started drumming against the steering wheel once more as he came to a red light. “My roommate broke her ankle,” he finally said. “She didn’t have anyone else to take her home, and you know as well as I do that I can do my work as easily from home as I can in the office. I don’t even have any meetings this week, so that makes it all the easier.”

A sigh crackled over the phone line. _“You’ll be picking up Fen’s work next month in exchange. Your current project should be done by then, and he has a vacation in the works already.”_

Rowan bit back a groan; the books Fenrys edited were far from his normal preference. It would have to do, though, and there was every chance Lorcan had planned on dumping it on him anyway. “Fine.”

As the light turned green once more, Lorcan hung up rather than say goodbye, but Rowan knew that was simply how he handled calls. He hadn’t been bothered by it in quite some time. Not to mention, it was a welcome relief to not have to keep splitting his already-fragmented attention.

When he arrived to Aelin’s room in the hospital she was almost entirely asleep, likely a combination of the painkillers they were sure to have given her and the late night she had worked. A gentle hand on her shoulder resulted in her blearily blinking up at him and then smiling. “Rowan.”

Rowan carefully ignored the fluttering sensation in his chest at her smile, instead helping her transfer herself into the wheelchair that sat beside the bed. A set of papers sat on the table beside her, and a brief glance showed them to be her discharge paperwork and care instructions. Knowing those would be important later, he grabbed them and then began to wheel her to his car.

She had fallen completely asleep by the time he’d managed to get her into the car seat, and he shook his head as he buckled her in. Frankly, he was amazed that she’d made it this long, knowing the long day she’d had. Therefore, he didn’t bother with attempting to wake her, but instead quietly drove them home.

It was somewhat awkward to lift her into his arms from the seat, but he managed. Opening the door was another feat, and he still wasn’t quite sure how he’d wrangled it, but then they were in the house and the door was closed behind them.

Even though Aelin was stirring now, carrying her up the narrow staircase was absolutely out of the question. She would have to get comfortable on the couch until he could rearrange things so she could sleep in his office space.

There were a few throw pillows around that had to have been Aelin’s addition to the house; he didn’t believe it likely that Aedion had thought enough about interior decorating to do so. When he had first moved in they had been an annoyance, all bright colors and bold patterns, but now he was thankful for their presence as they allowed him to help elevate Aelin’s ankle.

When he had finished with his task, Aelin opened her eyes. She was struggling to focus on him, however, and when she spoke the words were almost unintelligible. Rather than ask her to repeat herself, though, he reached for a throw blanket that was old enough to have possibly been Aedion’s. “You must be exhausted,” he said quietly. “Sleep now. We’ll talk later.”

She mumbled again in reply, but it was even less understandable than her first attempt at speech. As he spread the blanket over her, her eyes fluttered shut and her breathing evened out. Good. She would need all of the sleep she could get.

There were several things he needed to do in order to have the house ready for this new situation, and he could feel each task weighing on him. But as Aelin sighed and her head shifted, he allowed himself an extra moment at her side to carefully brush her long golden waves away from her face.

One of her hands shifted, then, and her fingers wrapped around her wrist. With a thrill of panic at being caught, he glanced at her face, only to see that she was still obviously asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief, but the relief was soon replaced by a different kind of thrill when his hand was moved and…

Gods. Was she… nuzzling his hand?

To save them both from guaranteed embarrassment later, he tried to remove his hand from her grip, but she only whined and tugged it closer. He sighed. “Aelin, you’re very endearing when you’re half asleep, but I have other things I need to do.”

Whether it was his words that swayed her or whether she had simply fallen into a deeper sleep, she mercifully loosened her grip on his wrist enough for him to free his hand. Still, though, he lingered for a moment longer, telling himself it was just to make sure she was truly asleep before he began his reorganization of the lower level of the house.

He carefully didn’t examine _why_ it was so important to him that he not wake her while he did so. That would only lead to a conversation he wasn’t ready to have yet, not even with himself.


End file.
